Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by Zach Smith
After a little hiccup, I re-ordered some more GM3 gearmotors, except this time, these motors are 12v, instead of the standard motor designed for 6v. This means that they will be more reliable, last longer, and just generally be more awesome. I forgot to get a picture of the new ones, but they look exactly the same, but with a much cooler looking black motor.
The only downside is that the 12v motor costs a bit more, so I had to raise the price from $6.50 to $7.00
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Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by Zach Smith
Whew! I finally managed to catch up on orders and assemble 100 more stepper motor driver kits. The end result is that there are now 25 complete reprap electronic kits available for sale. The biggest holdup was a 10 day wait to get new PCBs made, but I have 80 more in reserve now, so hopefully things will be faster next time.
If you’re interested, I encourage you to buy today, as there has been quite a bit of interest, and I feel like that kit may sell out rather quickly. As always the RRRF is a not-for-profit and the money goes back into the RRRF to buy more kits for others and to fund further RepRap research.
Additionally, after many requests, the RRRF will now be accepting back orders on many of the easily obtainable products. This will help those who are interested in getting the products, as well as help the RRRF obtain those products. One of the main stumbling blocks so far has been that the RRRF is working with very limited capital, which makes it hard to keep all the items people want in stock. Having money available to buy more of those things will prevent more situations like: “The RRRF has $1k. Should I buy $1k worth of steppers, or should I buy $1k of stepper driver kits.”
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Posted on June 20th, 2008 by Zach Smith
I’m proud to announce a new board developed by the RRRF today, the Opto Isolator v1.0. It is an opto isolator board which is useful for many things when you want to build safe, noise-free electronics. It has 4 channels of opto isolation and is our first board to use IDC headers. I’m very excited about this board, and hope you enjoy using it.
You can buy the kit, the pcb, or read the documentation.
As always, your purchases with the RRRF allow us to continue our research and bring you even more awesome, open source hardware goodness.
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Posted on June 5th, 2008 by Zach Smith
I’m proud to announce that we finally have a kit available of all the electronics you’ll need to build a RepRap machine! This is a big step forward, and is something we’ve been slowly working toward for an entire year now. Each kit contains all the electronic components, and PCBs you need to assemble the electronics for a RepRap machine. All the kits are very easy to assemble… even for a beginner!
You can even get an Arduino Diecimilia and USB cable as well!
You can buy it from the RRRF store today!
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Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Zach Smith
As the RRRF grows and matures from a crazy idea started in my tiny Brooklyn apartment, I’m gradually starting to apply better business practices. Previously, I had been setting prices by taking the costs, and adding a markup that ‘felt right’. Well, now ‘felt right’ has a number value: 30% for most things, and 100% for PCBs (to cover the dual pricing of prototypes / production).
The end result: many prices are reduced, and a couple have gone up. The best benefit is that it will be much easier to project how the RRRF is doing, what it is capable of doing, and how much it needs to grow in order to take it to the next level (and say have an employee or two.)
Anyway, here’s what changed:
PCBs
DC Motor Driver: $3.50 -> $3.00
PWM Driver: $5.00 -> $4.00
Opto Endstop: $0.75 -> $0.50
Arduino Breakout: $10.00 -> $5.00
Electronics Kits
Stepper Motor Driver: $30.00 -> $28.00
PWM Driver: $12.00 -> $11.00
Opto Endstop: $2.25 -> $3.00
Temperature Sensor: $3.00 -> $4.00
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Posted on May 29th, 2008 by Zach Smith
I’m pleased to announce that the RRRF is now stocking ABS again. These 5lb coils will be enough to print quite a few things. I only have 20 coils, so get them while they’re hot (and molten!)
This is the same plastic that professional RP machines use, and Nophead has recently had great results using it.
You can buy it here.
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Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Zach Smith
Arduino Diecimila
The RRRF finally scraped together enough money to do a bulk order of Arduinos, and now we are able to offer them on the store. The plan is to eventually sell a full kit of the electronics with the Arduino included. That way you can get everything needed to build the electronics for a RepRap in one fell swoop.
Buy your Arduino Diecimila here!
Molex Y Connector
I’m very close to having all the full electronics kit ready, but unfortunately I’ve sold out of the Arduino Breakout kits. They’re on re-order, but until they get here you’ll have to wait. It will be worth it though. In the meantime, I have another cool new product: a Y splitter for ATX cables. Add extra connectors to your power supply!
Buy your Molex Y Connector Here!
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Posted on May 15th, 2008 by Zach Smith
Yay! I just put the the last piece in the puzzle for getting the electronics required to drive a RepRap machine! With the completion of the Stepper Motor Driver v1.1 Kit, the RRRF now offers kits of all the electronics needed to build a RepRap machine. That means you dont have to deal with 5 different suppliers to get all your electronics parts. You can get all the kits from us, have all the parts easily available, and be up and running in no time flat!
The best part, is that this kit is only $30! Thats ridiculously cheap for a stepper motor driver board of this quality. Yay open source hardware!!!
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Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Zach Smith
With the help of George and Alicia at NYC Resistor, we recently assembled 100 total electronics kits! 50 of them are DC Motor Drivers, and 50 of them are PWM Drivers.
New Kit: PWM Driver v1.1
This kit allows you to drive things like heaters, fans, solenoids, etc. It uses TIP120’s which can put out up to 5A per channel with the right heatsinks. It’s a nice little board and pretty cheap too: only $12.
New Kit: DC Motor Driver v1.1
This kit allows you to drive 2 small DC motors in both forward and reverse with a simple 2-pin interface. It uses the rad L293D chip which can handle up to 1A per channel. It’s a nice little board and pretty cheap too: only $12.
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Posted on April 28th, 2008 by Zach Smith
Present: Adrian Bowyer, Ed Sells, Simon McAullife, Vik Olliver, Zach Smith.
Absent: Sebastien Bailard
Meeting started on skype at 0830GMT.
Bylaws were approved unanimously.
Zach, Simon, Vik, Ed, Adrian all voted to board unanimously
Nominations were made as follows:
Director, Treasurer - Zach
Secretary - Ed
Chair - Adrian
Vice-chair - Simon
Temporary Secretary - Vik, until September.
All positions voted in unanimously.
Jonathan Santiago of FabLab and NYC Resistor was proposed for a space on the board. The application was received positively pending his introduction.
Adrian proposed we meet in a fortnight to discuss voting Jonathan in, conversation to be made by e-mail.
Zach proposed issuing a bounty for manufactured parts. Adrian suggested a web page be used to coordinate fabrication of kits to ensure the right quantities of each part. Vik suggested that if this facility is developed it should be made available to local groups.
Zach to submit paperwork for tax-exempt non-profit status for the RRRF.
Paperwork currently in the hands of the lawyers.
A round of thanks were given to Zach.
Meeting closed 0910GMT
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